PREFACE TO THE SECOND AMERICAN EDITION. THE rapid sale of the first English edition of my "Gymnastics of the Voice," and the speedy necessity of a second edition, lead me to hope that the book will have as prosperous a career here in my adopted country as in my native land. To do all in my power for this end, I have, in accordance with the desire of my publisher, undertaken a complete change in the arrangement of the text,-the substance of which, however, remains entirely unchanged,— for the purpose of making it more intelligible to the general public and better adapted for use in schools. Furthermore, I have added many new and important exercises-never before in print, and used by me only, in a thirty years' practice of teaching, -together with several fresh illustrations, while some of the old cuts have been replaced by better ones. vi PREFACE TO SECOND AMERICAN EDITION. I venture to hope that the form in which I now present it to the public, prepared, as it has been, with the greatest care, will go some little way to meet the requirements of the modern system of education in this country. I cannot close without noticing the fact, that my system of breathing, and all pertaining thereto, has recently been adopted by other authors, who have not made mention, with one solitary word, of the source from which they drew. Several, however, - among them the author of the excellent book, "The Old Italian School of Singing,"-have made use of my ideas and have further developed them, publicly acknowledging all they owed to my book, and its share in inciting them to further researches. While fully conscious of the honor done me by the adoption of my ideas, I may yet be pardoned for desiring the credit of them, as some return for the labor and thought their elaboration has cost me. OSKAR GUTTMANN, 1884. |